Mother and Child (The Oval Mirror) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the American Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt.

The painting provides a glimpse of the domestic life of a mother and her child, evoking religious iconography from the Italian Renaissance.

In addition to Mother and Child (The Oval Mirror), Cassatt painted several other depictions of mother-and-child subjects.

Cassatt's focus on the mother-and-child format during the 1880s has sometimes been interpreted as related to the rise of Symbolism in French art during this decade.

[7][8] Comparisons between Mother and Child and depictions of the Madonna and infant Christ from the Italian Renaissance show that Cassatt may have been influenced by religious imagery.

The mirror in this painting is opaque which creates what the curator Judith Barter describes as a sense of "intimacy, privacy, and quite thoughtfulness.

"[9] The art historian Griselda Pollock similarly rejects the idea that Cassatt was reworking the religious symbol of the Madonna and infant Christ.

Pollock discusses how one of Cassatt's main themes was the depiction of mother and child, making similarities with religious imagery incidental.

The dealer Durand-Ruel, who sold Mother and Child, told the Havemeyers that when he asked Degas his opinion on the piece, he replied that it was "the finest work that Mary Cassatt ever did" and that "it contains all her qualities and is particularly characteristic of her talent."